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About the books

Who will recognize a great book better than a bookstore? A bookstore run by graphic designers. Here’s why: at MENDO we get market feedback seven days a week, we are blessed to be surrounded by a bunch of talented, inspiring people – photographers, writers and publishers – and after being a bookstore for more than 15 years, we can easily say we know what book aficionados are looking for. Don’t you agree that initiating, creating and realizing jaw-dropping books now, only comes natural?

A MENDO publication is a well-designed book with visually stunning creative content, browsed by people to be amazed and inspired. The subject-matter is one of our pre-defined curated categories, fashion, photography, interior, sport, lifestyle, food and traveling. In general, a MENDO book is a piece of furniture in itself.

Frame/Work

Every city has them: unique, free-spirited people that add color to their city. Distinctive personalities that thrive on the energy that their city gives them, and contribute to their city’s singular character. Frame/Work, a MENDO / Union initiative, is about these remarkable people and their urban habitat, how they see the world, and the lifestyle that makes it their own.

This is Frame/Work: a tribute to the daredevils, whose stories deserve to be read, heard, documented and framed

Frame/Work captures colorful characters and their inspiring stories. They live every day as if it were their last, in their city, which lives in every fibre of their being. You may recognize them, but maybe you’ll recognize yourself in them as well. Frame/Work is photographed by Jacob van Rozelaar and is written by Claire van de Graaff.

We meet chef Nigel van der Horst (1990) at the chic hotel Krasnapolsky in Amsterdam, where he had to be for an event. We’ve only just sat down when he slides a cocktail under our noses and starts talking. And starts to laugh – he seems to be able to do three things at the same time. That’s extremely rare for men. Regardless of the subject, there’s fun, love and enthusiasm in all he says. There’s another cocktail, okay two, and Nigel talks and laughs a little more. Even if we’d wanted, it would have been difficult to interrupt him. Why would we want to?

“When I moved to Amsterdam, everything fell into place.”
- Nigel van der Horst in Frame/Work

The best things only happen as soon as you veer off the beaten path. As you dare to start coloring outside the lines, or maybe even without any at all – regardless of if that what happens next was what you expected. But that takes courage. A lot of it.

We happened to know a few of those gutsy pioneers and flamboyant figures who had the courage to change their lives.

Those who wrote their own stories, sometimes from left to right, sometimes the other way around, but always with spirit and abandon, not afraid to rip out a page and start over. Stories that are worth telling.

For this book we followed them closely, on foot or by bike. They took us on adventures that have no end in sight yet, not even close. Through narrow alleys and dense forests, over squares and canals, past old loves and sweet memories.

For this book we followed them closely, on foot or by bike. They took us on adventures that have no end in sight yet, not even close. Through narrow alleys and dense forests, over squares and canals, past old loves and sweet memories.

It turned into a book about beer and coffee, about fashion and design, about food and drink. About city and nature, tranquility and turmoil, day and night. Moreover, it turned into a book about dreaming and daring. About turning left even if the whole world tells you to turn right. About taking a leap of faith. Because that’s what they did. It turned into a collection of spirited stories about passion, craftmanship, love and guts, of people who took their lives into their own hands.

This is Frame/Work: a tribute to the daredevils, whose stories deserve to be read, heard, documented and framed.